Stocks in the Spotlight Friday

Shares dipped 3.4% after the U.S. exchange agreed to buy OMX AB, the operator of the Nordic Exchange, for $3.7 billion. The purchase price values OMX at a 19% premium to its closing price Thursday. The companies expect the deal to close by the end of the year. Standard & Poor's Equity Research analyst Jason Willey wrote to clients: "OMX AB would provide Nasdaq with what we view as a much needed international presence and diversification into derivative products." Willey maintained a Hold rating on Nasdaq.

The maker of semiconductor-testing equipment reported a strong second quarter with a better-than-expected outlook for the third quarter. Thomas Weisel Partners was bullish on the news. Analyst Douglas Reid wrote in a research note, "In the April quarter, Verigy again demonstrated continued traction in winning new customers on the strength of a scaleable and flexible tester platform, leaving us incrementally confident in future share gains." Reid, who has an Overweight rating on shares, added: "Verigy remains our top pick among semi-cap-equipment names in our coverage." Shares soared 20%.

Shares of the Lancaster, Pa.-based financial-services company plunged 38% on news of improprieties at an affiliate company. In a statement, Sterling said it had uncovered a "sophisticated loan scheme &hellip; to conceal credit delinquencies, falsify financing contracts and related documents and subvert Sterling's established internal controls and reporting systems." The company expects to record a charge in the range from $145 million to $165 million as a result. SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Mac Hodgson wrote that "these events should ultimately result in the sale of Sterling Financial." Hodgson cut Sterling's rating to Reduce from Neutral and estimated the bank's valuation at $7 to $9 per share.

Shares of the apartment real-estate investment trust shot up 8% on a news report that the REIT is discussing a possible sale with real-estate owner and developer Tishman Speyer Properties. Friedman Billings Ramsey reiterated an Outperform rating in the wake of the media report, calling Archstone-Smith "an attractive value, takeout or not." Analyst Paul Morgan has a price target of $63 on Archstone-Smith shares.

The charts record the net change in share price, the high, low and closing trades, and share volume for companies with noteworthy stock activity last week. In addition, the graphs depict last week's daily price activity in detail. The dotted line on some graphs denotes the stock's 200-day moving average; lack of a moving average means the shares have traded for less than that time period.

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